With the turmoil in the world and the ongoing activities of bad actors, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been busy in 2023. Along with nearly constant updates to sanction lists, OFAC has penalized nine companies and one individual for violations to date in 2023. It has issued ten penalties, … Recent OFAC Actions, Penalties and New Video Series
If there’s one thing that businesses learned during the pandemic, it’s that supply chain matters. Mismanaging vendors can result in operational inefficiencies, higher costs and strained supplier relationships. One lousy customer interaction can have other happy vendors racing for the door. What’s more, 48 percent of businesses find it difficult to manage supplier costs, according … Overcoming Vendor Management Challenges with a Supplier Portal
Screening suppliers against lists of sanctioned businesses, individuals and entities is a critical part of the vendor management process. Sanctions are typically imposed by governments and international bodies, such as the United Nations (UN), to achieve foreign policy objectives, combat terrorism, prevent money laundering or address human rights concerns. The Office of Foreign Assets Control … How to Automate Sanctions Screening
Cleaning your vendor master file is an ongoing and vital project to avoid errors, payment delays, regulatory violations and fraud. Part I and Part II of this series outlined the first five steps of a thorough plan. Here in Part III are the final recommended steps. Steps six through nine include sanction list reviews, bank … 9 Steps to Cleaning the Vendor Master File – Part III
Vendor master files are dynamic. Organizations add new vendors and should inactivate old vendors. Active vendors change addresses and bank accounts, merge or acquire other vendors. Consequently, vendor master files require upkeep. Here are steps to cleaning the vendor master file. Part one of this two-part series on VMF cleansing addressed the first two of … 9 Steps to Cleaning the Vendor Master File – Part II
Bank account verification (BAV), defined here, is essential control to protect organizations from unauthorized access to their funds, avoid costly payment mistakes and fraud, and enhance business relationships and the overall security of financial systems. BAV is crucial for businesses for several reasons: Fraud prevention: Verifying bank account ownership helps organizations avoid fraudulent activities, such … Why Bank Account Verification Is Important
Organizations are under siege by bad actors across the globe who are determined to rip them off. But new software that verifies the ownership of a bank account can help businesses mitigate their risk. Threats to information security top the list of operations risk, a new survey by Risk.com finds. Cyber risk – in one … How to Mitigate Cyber Risk with Bank Account Validation
Who would violate OFAC sanctions? Few intentionally. Perhaps a company already doing business with a foreign company before a sanction is put in place. Or just a company without an adequate program to review sanction lists regularly, whether against vendors or customers. (And maybe there are a very few too anxious to grow business in … A Cautionary Tale of OFAC Violations and Mitigations
The Challenge of Verifying Supplier Information Managing supplier information has never been easy. Small slipups in collecting, verifying and storing supplier information increase errors, non-compliance and fraud vulnerability. The prolonged shift to remote work has made verifying supplier information harder and riskier. Bad actors are using the disruption caused by remote working to perpetrate payment … How to Reduce the Risk of Payment Fraud through the Automatic Verification of Bank Account Ownership
Appearances and Vendor Payments One of the most iconic scenes in a Hollywood heist movie comes near the end of Ocean’s Eleven. The “team” minus Danny Ocean lean against the balustrade in front of the Bellagio on the Las Vegas strip, quietly gazing at the fountains as Debussy’s beautiful Claire de Lune plays. Then one … Falling for the Illusion of Cybercriminals Will Cost You
OFAC Sanctions Russians and Others The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of sanctioned persons and entities has grown since Russia invaded Ukraine. But along with Russian oligarchs and entities, OFAC has also designated others, most notably two key Hizballah financiers operating out of Guinea in West Africa, in compliance with … OFAC Is Busy with Russia and More – Are You Keeping Up?
ACH has steadily grown, while check payments are declining. Seventy-eight percent of organizations use ACH for some vendor payments. And while 82 percent of organizations still make some payments by check, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), the volume of checks by businesses has been steadily declining. According to the Federal … ACH Rising: What It Means for Vendor Information Management
